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Maps and Mapping in Children's Literature: Landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes
Edited by Nina Goga and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 7] 2017
► pp. 17–39

Chapter 1
A cognitive-developmental perspective on maps in children’s literature

Maps in children’s literature vary in many ways, for example, by representing real or imagined places; employing abstract or pictorial symbols; and depicting spaces at differing scales, orientations, and viewing angles. Although authors and illustrators may presume that children readily “see through” such maps to understand their underlying meaning, cognitive-developmental research suggests otherwise. This chapter reviews children’s developing representational and spatial concepts and their relevance for map understanding; contrasts perspectives of geography, literature, and cognitive development; and urges that future researchers study explicitly how maps are used during reading, and how these varied uses influence the cognitive and emotional consequences of the reading experience.

Article outline
  • Foundations of map understanding
    • Geography: Cartographic foundations
    • Cognitive development: Representational foundations
    • Cognitive development: Spatial foundations
    • Summary
  • Map foci across perspectives
    • The perspective of geography
    • The perspective of children’s literature
    • Comparing perspectives
  • A cognitive-developmental perspective: Where next?
  • Author queries
  • References
Published online: 14 August 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clcc.7.02lib
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